It is interesting to see the aim of the undercover operation. The two police spies were sent to gather information about protests which were being planned against the G20 summit in Toronto last year.

Meetings of world leaders at G20 and G8 summits have long been a target of protests by the global justice movement, environmentalists, anti-capitalists, and other progressive activists. Therefore intelligence about these protests beforehand is at a premium for police forces.

There are of course similarities in the undercover operations here in Britain and in Canada. For instance, one of the Canadian undercover officers reportedly had a white van and drove activists around. He is also reported to have played up divisions between activists.

But it turned out he may not have been that skilled - activists reportedly became suspicious about him because he kept his receipts. Mmm, wonder why he was doing that ?